Allow me to introduce you to Arlington council member Charlie Parker, also known as Councilman Hothead. He may be the rudest city council member in North Texas, based on samples of his emails to constituents.

Parker’s constituent, Leah Musser, shared her emails. She wrote Parker, who represents the area around the sports stadiums, to ask if the city has a policy on e-cigarettes. Parker replied that it was under consideration. Musser wrote back, “Hope you are not taking any money” from the e-cig industry.

Musser ignored the order and replied that he was “overreacting a little.”

Parker came back again: “I give all the money I make at this job to veterans. To insinuate that I take money to sway a decision in any way is repulsive. If that is how you think government works then your opinion has no value to me.”

Whoa.

Does he always talk like this to the people who elected him twice? My colleague, Marina Trahan Martinez, filed an open records request for Parker’s emails. Getting copies took six weeks. The city doesn’t make it easy. Worse, the city failed to provide the email quoted above. Fortunately, Musser gave The Watchdog a copy.

His words

Arlington’s biggest battle this year was a tea party-led campaign to rid the city of red-light cameras. Parker is a staunch defender of the cameras. But it’s a battle he lost. Arlington voters forced the cameras’ removal in May.

During the campaign, Parker received a copy of a study supporting their removal.

Parker replied that the study was “garbage.”

He added, “Tell me what is better about more accidents in our streets? If someone has an opposing view, live with it. It’s called the First Amendment. You remember the Constitution don’t you? Don’t send me any more of this trash.”

I asked Parker about his style.

“I try to be as truthful as possible,” he says. “I realize I am a public figure, OK? But that doesn’t allow me to become a target. I won’t allow that to happen. I don’t think as a public official you have to take ridicule.”

He spends part of the day we talk trying to help a mother get her city water account turned back on. He also clears his emails once or twice every day, he says.

“My heart goes out to a lot of people who have issues that are genuine,” he explains. “If you try to provoke me, then game on.”

He adds, “The people that have nothing better to do than try to climb up my leg are going to get crapped on as far as I’m concerned.”

The Watchdog paid for a small selection of his emails. In those, much of his arguing involves Arlington tea party leaders.

“I am convinced you are the most negative person that I have ever encountered,” he writes Kelly Canon, then vice president of the Arlington tea party.

“I have absolutely no respect for the Kelly Canon’s [sic] of the world,” he writes someone else. “I would much rather talk to a parrot.”

Canon’s response? She announced on her Twitter page that she is challenging Parker for his District 1 seat in the May 2016 election.

Listening to Parker explain his tell-it-like-it-is style, it becomes clear: He’s a former Navy pilot who moved on to the airlines. He’s in charge. His is a “get off my plane” mentality.

“As a fighter pilot, a Top Gun graduate, there’s no points for second place,” he says. “You either live or you don’t. A lot of this might be left over from way back in the day.”

I explain this to Musser, whose emails from Parker launched this search.

“I’m glad I’m not the only one,” she says. “I thought it was an unpaid intern answering his emails who didn’t know what he was doing. I couldn’t believe it was from him.”

Some could find Parker’s style refreshing. They may see it as unscripted and authentic. Others may find him rude. His is not exactly the style of a get-along North Texas politician.

“I’m just a normal individual, just like you or anybody else,” he says. “I have the same feelings. I don’t have a thin skin. I just don’t have a whole lot of time for it. I have to move on to the next issue.” And the next email.

Staff writer Marina Trahan Martinez contributed to this report.

Check out The Watchdog Mondays on NBC5 at 11:20 a.m. talking about matters important to you.

Watchdog had trouble getting copies of e-mails

Getting copies of emails from the city of Arlington wasn’t easy for The Dallas Morning News Watchdog team.

The city failed the test because even though it charged us $109 for copies, it didn’t give us a copy of the original email from council member Charlie Parker that launched our research.

That was the email in which Parker called a constituent’s letter “repulsive” and added “your opinion has no value to me.”

The city should have provided that one, too, but didn’t.

Assistant City Attorney Molly Shortall promised The Watchdog that all emails that matched our requested search terms were provided.

We asked for emails with these search terms: red-light camera, fracking, gas drilling, e-cigarettes and vaping.

We paid the city. Later, when we realized that the target email was missing, we called Shortall. The missing email showed the target word “e-cigarettes” in the subject line and should have been included.

The city lawyer said she was familiar with the email that wasn’t given to us. She called it up on her computer screen. But she couldn’t explain why we never received it.

The city also delayed providing us the emails because it requested a ruling from the Texas attorney general.

Eventually, the city charged us for copies, for redaction of personal information and for “labor and overhead.” All that, but the one email that launched this project was never included. Oops.